3.5 STARS - I requested this book based solely on Thomas Mullen's name on the cover. I absolutely loved his previous books Darktown and Lightning Men (the first two books in his Darktown historical police procedural series) and was eager to see what he had written now.

This time out, Mullens is changing up genres and has written a dystopian/Sci-Fi/ speculative thriller. Admittedly, SciFi isn't my go-to genre but it had a very unique premise. A pandemic takes the sight of everyone on earth and now people rely on technology called Vidders that approximate vision directly into people's brains. But what if someone was able to manipulate the images people 'see'?

Within this thriller, Mullen throws in some good twists and interesting world building. The story is told by a few POVs, but the one that stood out the most for me was Homicide Detective Mark Owens who is on the hunt for the person who murdered a scientist and is still reeling from the loss of his wife.

But I felt the thriller aspect gets a bit lost in the details, the multiple POVs and their backstories. Sci-Fi is not a genre I normally read so I appreciated that Mullen doesn't get into the nitty-gritty of the science behind how people now see with Vidders but would have loved to have known what caused The Blinding in the first place.

Audiobook: I jumped between the eBook and the eAudiobook for this read and while Gary Tiedemann did a good job narrating, I preferred reading this book on my kindle due to the many characters. I also couldn't help but feel like Blind Spots was written more like a TV script and less with a book format in mind.

A unique blend of genres, this dystopian story (with some social commentary for good measure), will make you wonder what your life would be like and how you would manage if you and everyone around you lost your sight.

Disclaimer: Thanks to Minotaur Books and MacMillan Audio for the complimentary eBook and eAudiobooks that were provided in exchange for my honest review.

Seven years ago The blinding strikes the planet, leaving everyone in the world without their vision. Then technology takes over and they create something that will help all human kind. But is it possible that someone could manipulate it?⁣
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I’m usually not a fan of police and detective stories, but I have to admit this was such a unique mystery novel that I actually didn’t mind it. This novel is exciting to follow and has many sci-fi aspects for my sci-fi lovers!⁣
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Overall, I enjoyed this one just wasn’t a huge fan of the sci-fi parts! Make sure to checkout The Blind Spots on release date April 4th.

"You must ask yourselves: why did we decide to stop trusting our own eyes, our own hearts, our own minds?"

Part thriller, part dystopian cautionary tale, Blind Spots focuses on the aftereffects of the Blinding, a pandemic in which the world collectively went blind. Technology developed in the form of vidders, invented to simulate vision so that people could regain their ability to see. But what happens when someone, some evil outside force with an agenda of its own, takes control of what you see? How do you reconcile what you see with what you intuitively know and understand about the world around you? How can you trust your own vision?

This book was an absolute struggle to read and I considered calling it a DNF multiple times throughout. The narrative was exhausting with an endless look behind everyone's thoughts. The short sentences and abrupt changes in points of view and timeline, alternating between telling the events of before and after the Blinding, took away from the flow of the story. There was an excessive and unnecessary use of race and ethnicity descriptors when introducing the characters, none of whom I liked, and I found it difficult to empathize with their plight.

Most disappointing, there were so many missed opportunities for thought provoking discussion with the dystopian aspect approximating something that could conceivably occur in the near future. I would have liked to see a deeper look at the fallibility of our vision and, consequently, that of our memories and I feel as if this book merely scratched the surface.

*POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT*
The story took a decidedly political turn, shedding light on corruption and malfeasance, which no longer felt like reading science fiction. There was no sense of urgency or fear, no terror in anticipating how the events would unfold. I was expecting perhaps light horror to be weaved into the genres but it was simply chaos and doubts. I had hoped for a completely different spin to this story and I unfortunately didn’t enjoy any part of it, beginning to end. I would instead recommend this book to fans of political thrillers as they might better appreciate the direction this story endeavored to go.

** Special thanks to St. Martin's Press / Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Available April 4, 2023. **

I received a digital advance copy of Blind Spots by Thomas Mullen via NetGalley. Blind Spots is scheduled for release on April 4, 2023.

Blind Spots starts seven years after a strange pandemic swept across the earth. This pandemic didn’t make people sick, it took their sight. No one was spared. To adjust to the new state of humanity, technology was developed that bypassed the neural connection between the eyes and brain, allowing people to “see” the world around them once again. Now a scientist has been murdered, and the only witness reports a killer who was nothing more than a black blur in her vision. Detective Owens is on the case, but like the rest of the force, doesn’t believe the witness. Until he sees the same blacked out shapes. Now he finds himself a suspect in the current deaths, questioning his own sight and the sight of everyone around him.

For me, the strength of this novel were the questions around how humans would function in a world were no one could see. Initially, these questions were enough to keep me moving through the story. I did find that I had to suspend my disbelief a lot in following the explanation for how society adjusted with what seemed like minimal impact on humanity. There are clear echoes throughout of the pandemic we have recently experienced, and those echoes made more sense in a medical pandemic rather than the sightless pandemic taking place in the novel. At some points, the plot was a bit buried in what some heavy-handed commentary from the author related to law enforcement, government, and conspiracy theories.

The story here is focused on Detective Owens, though we do also get some scenes from a couple of other characters. While the stories of the characters made sense, I did not find myself attached to them, again finding that they were serving what the author wanted to say, rather than being well-developed characters working toward their goals.

Overall, Blind Spots was a different take on a pandemic story, but may have suffered from the author’s intended message.

Set in a dystopia future where everyone lost their sight to The Blinding and wears hack-proof technology called Vidders to see, Owen's is facing a murder investigation where the eyewitness says she only saw a black blur. He doesn't believe her until a second murder Iis committed by a black blur that he witnesses himself. Yet still nobody believes it. With an Internal Affairs investigation already over his head and people out to kill him, can he find out what's really going on?

I enjoyed this book, there were a few parts that were a little slow and I wasn't really connected with all the characters, but overall I found it to be enjoyable. The plot was definitely an interesting premise and what drew me to this book. I will say that this is much more a mystery than it is dystopian fiction. I think mystery fans will enjoy it though.

My thanks to Saint Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, author Thomas Mullen, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy. My opinions are my own.

This book is set in the future after an event known as "The Blinding" occurs. This event leaves all humans blind. Cops and government are the first to receive a new type of technology known as vidders, a device that allows the user to see again. Civilians across the society are angry that the officials got these devices first since they believe they are misusing the vidders to get advantages such as food for their families.

Owens is a cop who believes himself to be a good man. Suddenly murders start appearing across the city where witnesses begin reporting they were attacked by a black blur. Owens states that's the oldest trick in the book, a vidder malfunction, "how convenient." That is until he sees this blur.

Suddenly, the police force is against Owens, thinking he's insane. How will Owens convince them that he's not before it's too late?
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I really enjoyed this book. Once I started reading, I finished in at most two days, but I did not want to put this book down.

The book has a perfect amount of suspense and thriller. The whole story you're guessing who killed Owen's wife and the victims of the black blur. In addition, you're struggling to determine who to trust in this book where almost every character seems untrustworthy, especially the main character, Owens.

I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves thrillers, crimes, or mysteries, but I think this book could be for anyone who just wants a good read as well.

An intriging story about a pandemic that rendered everyone blind. People are able to via vidders, a device that downloads visual data into the brain.
When Detective Mark Owens and his partner are called to investigate the murder of a scientist, the only witness, a fellow scientist, states that she saw a blur before the kiilling shot. When the witness is murdered, Owens is convinced he saw a blur when he arrived at the scene.
Has someone discovered a way to manipulate the data delivered via the vidder? Can one trust the data provided? As the situation evolves, Owens seeks to uncover who is behind the altered data and what purpose it serves.
#BlindSpots #NetGalley

It’s seven years after the blinding an event in which slowly but surely everyone in the world went blind thanks to technology they now have a visual fee directly to their brain and although it’s not as great as having vision it’s still is a good substitute. When we start the story it is in Atlanta with Detective Mark Owens his best friend Detective Jimmy Peterson in to lower level officers they’re about to do a gun bust in due to the things that happened in the Bost it will bring detective Owens stability into question. This doesn’t stop him however from investigating a recent doctor accused of murdering another doctor in despite she claims she saw the whole thing no one believes that instead of seeing a person she just saw a black blob but win detective Owens starts being targeted the more he investigates and he sees the blob for himself The more his saying that he comes into question not even his best friend Detective Peterson believes him. This book was so good and I know I didn’t do a great summary but there’s so much to this book there’s conspiracy theories Colts I couldn’t stop reading it and even though I’m blind and he got a couple of things wrong they were just little things and inconsequential to the story because this story is so so good! I am usually very critical of people writing about blind characters in the book because most claimed they see darkness women reality blind people see nothing but I think Thomas Mullen did a fantastic job representing totally blind people and he wrote a stellar sci-fi mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed it deserves five stars and more. I totally love this book and if you love conspiracy theories and sci-fi you love Blindspot‘s it is so so good! I received this book from NetGalley and Saint Martin’s press that I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Blind Spot by Thomas Mullen is a sci-fi thriller in which Mullen brings to life a world ravaged by a global pandemic that leaves the entire world population completely blind. People become dependent upon an implant that allows them to see. Mark Owens is a detective who has lived through horrors of The Blinding. Haunted by the violence and greed of others, he learns to adapt to the new normal. On a murder case, he learns about a glitch in the implant that allowed a perp to be unseen, a blind spot. Detective Owens must then try to solve an even bigger mystery, who has the technology to cause these blind spots? Mullen is a master storyteller. The tale is full of sensory details; color and texture bringing the story to life. The tension builds with every page, leaving you breathless waiting for the next twist of the plot.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Owen has been a detective for years. He is not believing a witness to a murder, until it happens to him. With the list of victims growing, Owen will need to use his instincts to solve the cases. A good mystery.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of the new book by Thomas Mullen and wonderfully narrated by Gary Tiedemann - 4 stars!

Seven years ago, The Blindness swept through the world leaving everyone virtually blind. Technology created vidders, an implantable device that allows people a way to see. But it appears that someone has hacked that technology, creating black blurs in people's vision. When Detective Mark Owens sees a murder happen but the perpetrator is blurred out of his vision, no one believes him. Soon the detective himself is a suspect.

This is a scary dystopian look into a future pandemic's effect on society and will definitely give you present day issue vibes. There are conspiracy theories, anti-technology and anti-government protestors, police corruption, classism, politics - need I go on? Plus, going blind and having all visual cues taken away brings up so many fears - loss of control, loss of trust, loss of faith. With that as a background, there is a mystery here to be solved so buckle up!

What if the next pandemic meant the entire population went blind? That is exactly what happened in Blind Spots.

The Blinding left humanity without sight seven years prior to the events. It only took a matter of months but then it was complete darkness. Technology in the form of Vidders, devices that attach to a person’s head, were developed and gave people artificial sight, with the added technology of digital media embedded into the devices.

Mark Owens and his partner are police officers who survived the worst of the Blinding. They are haunted by what they had to do as officers during the Blinding. Owens is still reeling from a death that hit close to home two years ago. They are assigned to the murder case of a professor working on vision technology, and the witness claims the killer was a black blur who couldn’t be identified. No one believes her story as it’s felt that Vidders can’t be hacked, but Owens then sees a blurred individual leaving the scene of another murder. What then transpires is a tense and enjoyable mystery, taking place in an apocalyptic future with eerie similarities to our present day world.

Blind Spots is well written and superbly plotted. The main characters are well developed and their actions believable. By raising the specter of Vidder manipulation in an apocalyptic world, it also made me think how much our current technologies are manipulating us.
I will definitely be looking for more from Thomas Mullen. This Blind Spots isn’t out until April 4th but start preparing for it now. It’s a real page turner.

I adore the Darktown series and will read (and have read) pretty much anything Thomas Mullen writes. I’m not a huge sci-fi fan, but I liked this one. It gave me Blake Crouch vibes, so there was action and a thriller element to this book as well. Solid writing, interesting plot.

A different type of pandemic strikes the world causing people to lose their sight. Eventually vitors, implants that can help you see, are developed. As with any new technology there are bugs and there are people trying to make the technology work for their interests. The anniversary of The Blinding is coming up and anniversary’s of terrible events can have big impacts.

After everything was closed in 2020, this book seems very real. It makes you think what would you do if you lost sight. It’s a very interesting book with some strong language in the beginning.

This story reminded me of a few stories that left me with chills. Vox comes to mind along with Bird Box and a little sprinkle of Lord of the Flies. But the story this most reminds me of is one we’re still living with and that's Coronavirus. When I think about the isolation and all that people had to endure and is still combatting, Blindspots hits the spot!

Having stated the above, I do have to say I’m a bit on the fence with this story. Mark Owens is a homicide detective navigating through the blinding years of earth. Once the blinding took place, there were several tech companies who designed eyewear for humans to see and plenty of competition to go around. When the blinding first happened, the only sighted humans were law enforcement. I wasn’t quite sure just how much damage a blind person could do, hence the fact they do not have sight, but much like we were in the dark about how to deal with Covid, the characters in this story went through the same thing.

Everyone was trying to deal with this situation. Lots of finger pointing as to what caused everyone to go blind. At the end of the day, did that really matter? No, because the result was still the same. Of course, there were those that wanted to have sight again and those who were dead set against it and decided they wanted an inner sight because it was more wholesome than when humans were able to have direct sight. One such tech company designed what they called ‘vidders’ to outfit new human eyesight.

There were several scientists working diligently to meet the demand of humans. And of course, with anything good science tries to create there is always someone or something that changes the game. As two scientists were done working for the night decide to head home, one of them thought their vidder was playing tricks on them. They could sense someone was there, but the problem was it just appeared as a black blob in from of them. This blob began to attack the scientist leaving in its wake a dead body surrounded in crimson red.

When the surviving scientist tries to explain to Mark and the police squad that there are people who can go undetected even with the best technology, they didn’t believe her. Quite naturally, it appeared as though she was their person of interest. They chuckled and figured the scientist had truly gone mad. Oh, she was mad, but not of the variety in which they made her the brunt of their jokes. As the reader continues Mark’s journey, it will soon become apparent that there are shady characters and even more devious plots set about to play.

So, you’re wondering why am I on the fence? The storyline was amazing! I absolutely loved the plot of this story, but what grated on my nerves entirely is the story reads like a script. If I didn’t know any better, it was as if I were reading for a part in an action movie. Obviously, this is the way the author chose to relay his story, but that didn’t really work for me. The other issue I had is the overly done detail. There was so much detail and backstory that I kept forgetting what the original story was about. I had to constantly go back and re-read sections because I couldn’t focus on the matter at hand.

Did I find this story to be riveting and mind blowing? No! Do not get me wrong. The story was good, but there was so much detail and actions that took place that I felt could have been edited. From the way the story was narrated as if Mark was telling it to you or that of the author, again, it felt like reading a script. Exit stage left, or character enters here. Umm, no, sorry I’m not a fan of the style of writing, but the story was terrifying just thinking that in a lab somewhere, some idiot holds this type of power over humanity and can cause it to change at will. (Shudder!!!)

Overall, this was an incredible story of what happens when scientists and government collide. All I could think about when I read this story was what we’ve been dealing with for the last three years of Covid and still dealing with. I tell you, stories like these may be fictional, but. . .are they really?

Blind Spots takes place after a pandemic, The Blinding, caused all the people in the world to permanently lose their sight. Technology advanced to the point where people were able to see through a device that downloaded images directly to their brains. But somehow someone is messing with the devices and created a way that people can commit murder without being seen. Only a black blur is detected. Only a few people have seen these black blurs, including Detective Mark Owens, but 'no one believes that this is possible. Part dystopia, part science fiction, part crime novel with a little romance, Blind Spots has it all. This novel sucked me in. I highly recommend! Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for the ARC.

Years earlier there was The Blinding. It was a time when everyone lost his or her sight. The world was chaotic and chaos ruled until Tech put together vidders that were put into individuals’ heads and enabled them to see mental images of what was happening around them. Now people are dying and Mark Owens, a Police Detective, is suspected of being the cause. He goes rogue and attempts to clear his name. I am not a fan of SciFi and it took me a while to get into this and a day to finish it. The plots are gripping and the characters possible. Thanks to Net Galley and Minotaur Books for an ARC for an honest review.

This Sci-Fi thriller was good, but I had a hard time enjoying it. The Dystopian aspect was not what I enjoy. I did however enjoy the mystery, thrills, cops, and bad guys and that part of the book. Wish it had just been that without the blinding part. I am not really into Sci-Fi. Love the mystery thriller part of this book. Recommend to Sci-Fi Thriller fans for sure.

Review of Uncorrected Digital Galley

It’s been seven years since The Blinding, when, in just a few months, everyone everywhere inexplicably lost their sight. It wasn’t long after that event that technology created the vidder. The device approximated the eyesight people had lost by downloading visual data into their brains.

Homicide detective Mark Owens, his partner Jimmy Peterson, and Officer Safiya Khouri sit in a squad car, watching the street and looking for anything unusual. They’re waiting for a warrant to come through for their gun-running case. But it isn’t long before Mark is involved in a new case: the murder of a scientist, purportedly by a “blacked out” assassin who appeared as a black blur on the witness’s vidder. The police find that very hard to believe.

After Mark experiences a similar event, he realizes that someone has found a way to hack the information sent to the vidders and can distort reality.

Can Mark find the culprits? And can he trust what he sees?

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Set in the near future, this dystopian tale offers readers a strong sense of place, believable characters, and a compelling plot. Although, disappointingly, there is no explanation for The Blinding, the mystery of the “black blurs” is intriguing enough to keep the reader invested in the unfolding story.

Told from multiple points of view, the story turns on conspiracies and lies with some surprising revelations along the way. With human behavior under the microscope [so to speak], readers have an opportunity to consider the wide variety of factors that influence behavior. What place does power play in the decision of what path to follow? Do political considerations play a part? [And readers might compare the manipulation of the vidders with the manipulation of current technology.]

Eminently readable, difficult to set aside, readers will find much food for thought in this intriguing mystery.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley
#BlindSpots #NetGalley

A riveting crime novel is right! This was so intense and totally un - put - down - able.

I really enjoyed this and look forward to more by Mullen.